Talks 510. Swamiji says we’re deluded by Maya into thinking we’re sheep. But we’ve always BEEN lions or tigers.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
Does Swami Vivekananda’s story show us that the tiger was a sheep? [For that story, click HERE.] No. The tiger or lion was hypnotised into thinking it was a sheep because it had not seen itself. The day it saw itself, the power manifested and it realised, ‘Hey, I am a tiger.’ But all the time it had been a tiger. All the time you are a god [Atman/Brahman], but hypnotism [Maya] has made you think that you are this.
We are looking for that which Sri Ramakrishna taught us. What is the use of clinging on to Sri Ramakrishna and not wanting to reach the state that he wanted us to reach? I feel that Sri Ramakrishna, [Holy Mother] Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda are not important to us, as long as we do not strive for the things they asked us to strive for. When we do that, then the holy ones mean everything.
Excuse me for saying this in such strong words, but I want to show you that to me the deities really do not matter. They are only a manifestation – like you and me. But I thank them, I bow to them. They are the brightest manifestations who have come to show us the light; while our manifestations are still dark. We cannot even see our own footsteps. They are That which you are, but you are not shining as yet.
God is man. If the container is ice and the thing you put in that container is water, what is the difference between the container and the water? Both are H2O but one is in liquid form and the other is in the form of ice. You are calling one of them ‘container’ and the other one ‘water’.
Though you use the word merging, though you mean becoming, all these are just figurative words. In reality God-realisation is nothing like that. It is realising your own true divine nature.
The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.
These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.